She shrugged, again looking between the two of them. It was an easy question. The answer should have rolled off her tongue.

It was Reyes who answered. “Was it Mrs. Urbansky?”

“Is that the woman at the police department?”

“Yes,” Nic said.

“Right. That’s it. Sorry. That’s not an easy name to remember.”

They said their goodbyes. Edith Moore left. Nic and Reyes got back in his car.

“What was that about?” Nic asked. “The way you grilled her.”

Reyes drove back onto Hastings Pass, heading into town.

“She’s lying. She never went to New York. She was never driving home.”

“Maybe she was at the casino. Maybe she didn’t want her boyfriend to know. She said she lives with him, right?” Nic threw out scenarios but they sounded unlikely, even to her.

Reyes hit the gas harder.

“Look—I don’t want to dick you around like everyone else. This woman is lying. Her E-ZPass records show her on the New York State Thruway the day before the storm, getting off at the exit that leads to Route 7. It’s not the fastest way to the casino. Only thing that makes sense is that she was headed right here, to Hastings, coming from the north, not the south. She must have spent the night.”

“Then someone in this town knows her.”

Reyes continued. “If she’s the reason you came back here and started looking again, and if you do find your mother, she’ll get the money even if there was no truck. It won’t matter—she brought you back.”

Nic had considered this. “But then why make up the story about the truck? It would only lead me in a wrong direction, further away from finding my mother. Further away from her getting the money. Why not just say she saw my mother—and I know she did because of what she said—about my mother’s purse with the letters.”

Reyes considered this. “So maybe there is a truck with a broken taillight.”

They were back at the inn. Nic reached for the door handle, then stopped.

“You really think she was in Hastings? That she was with someone here the night before the storm, before she left for home?”

Reyes shrugged. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Then, a thought that made her gasp.

“What is it?” Reyes asked.

Nic shook her head slowly, putting the pieces in place. “What if she saw my mother because she was involved in her disappearance? Maybe someone from Hastings is involved as well—with her. It could be anything—maybe they helped her get to Laguna but don’t want to be implicated. Or maybe something else . . . there’s money at stake even if she’s not found alive—five hundred thousand dollars. And the note—what if it really is a forgery?”

“Okay, stop right there.”

“What if they hurt her?” Nic’s voice started to tremble.